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I am working in midtown Manhattan. My wife and I are renting a place in Summit. I take the express train to NY penn in the morning, then have to take the subway. The door to door commuting is about 1 hour 45 minutes. The commuting is a little bit too long to me (maybe a lot of people think it is acceptable ).
We are currently looking for buying our first house. I really want to find a place that won't take more than 1 hour to commute to NYC.
- Safety. This is really our top priority ( I believe this is the same to everyone).
- School is not so important at the moment. We don't have kids yet.
- We probably can afford a house of $800k. But we really like find a house no more than $700k.
- Age of house. We'd like the house is not too old. Many of my friends told me that we would have to spend a lot of money or put a lot of efforts in fixing/improving the old house.
After reading many posts in this forum, I am currently checking the listings in Rutherford and Secaucus. But there are only 2 houses that are less than 20 years old on the listings at the moment. The house in Secaucus is listed for $790k while the Rutherford house for $875k.
I have several questions:
1. Do you guys see a lot of young houses in those area? How old is a house that won't considered as too old and required a lot of work?
2. Some people mentioned that Secaucus is in the flood zone. Is there any any sepcific area in Secaucus that is not in the flood zone?
3. It seems that Secaucus does not have a downtown. How do you guys compare Secaucus with Rutherford? Is it much more convenient to live in Rutherford?
4. What are the commute options from Rutherford to NYC? A lot of people mentioned that it is very busy around Rutherford train station in the morning. What do you guys think if I drive to Secause train station and take the train?
I am really new to this area. Just moved from Canada. Any suggestions about where should live or our house hunting are really appreciated.
I'd reccommend Wood-Ridge NJ and Hasbrouck Heights NJ.
W-R especially had quite a few new homes built recently that are sitting that are in your price range...you'd be the first occupant. Taxes are decent for Bergen/Northern NJ and there is a train in house - you could be to Manhattan within an hour - no problem. Overall I think both WR and HH are better than Secaucus and Rutehrford in terms of crime, actually, they definately are. WR is the safest of all 4 towns mentioned. Good luck.
You can also try area's in central jersey
Westfield, Cranford , Clark , Colonia and certain parts of Rahway
They are all within your range as far as price and commute
They all have some new construction as well as some
very beautiful and well kept older homes
Westfield is a beautiful town and Rahway downtown is undergoing a remake of the downtown area, you can google any town to find out what is going on
I am working in midtown Manhattan. My wife and I are renting a place in Summit. I take the express train to NY penn in the morning, then have to take the subway. The door to door commuting is about 1 hour 45 minutes. The commuting is a little bit too long to me (maybe a lot of people think it is acceptable ).
We are currently looking for buying our first house. I really want to find a place that won't take more than 1 hour to commute to NYC.
- Safety. This is really our top priority ( I believe this is the same to everyone).
- School is not so important at the moment. We don't have kids yet.
- We probably can afford a house of $800k. But we really like find a house no more than $700k.
- Age of house. We'd like the house is not too old. Many of my friends told me that we would have to spend a lot of money or put a lot of efforts in fixing/improving the old house.
After reading many posts in this forum, I am currently checking the listings in Rutherford and Secaucus. But there are only 2 houses that are less than 20 years old on the listings at the moment. The house in Secaucus is listed for $790k while the Rutherford house for $875k.
I have several questions:
1. Do you guys see a lot of young houses in those area? How old is a house that won't considered as too old and required a lot of work?
2. Some people mentioned that Secaucus is in the flood zone. Is there any any sepcific area in Secaucus that is not in the flood zone?
3. It seems that Secaucus does not have a downtown. How do you guys compare Secaucus with Rutherford? Is it much more convenient to live in Rutherford?
4. What are the commute options from Rutherford to NYC? A lot of people mentioned that it is very busy around Rutherford train station in the morning. What do you guys think if I drive to Secause train station and take the train?
I am really new to this area. Just moved from Canada. Any suggestions about where should live or our house hunting are really appreciated.
Thanks.
Just curious, how did you arrive at the list of towns? I personally would not spend that amount of money in any of the places you listed. Even though you don't have kids now, one day you probably will. So, think of the future, the re-sale value. Good schools sell. None of the towns you listed are considered "top-school" districts. There is no way, you'll ever sell your house for that amount in those towns. They are not bad, by any means, but I think you could do much better with $700K.
Also, you mentioned that just moved from Canada and not really familiar with the area. Why not rent for a while?
Last edited by ira; 07-21-2008 at 11:11 AM..
Reason: sp
I have been living in a rented place for so many years. Just want to get our own house and finally settle down.
You are on resale value. It is interesting to see that there is a pretty sharp rise of house price in Q1 of 2008.
How is the school of Rutherford? According to the old posts in this forum, a lot people said that the school in Rutherford is good.
We are first thinking about buying a house around Summit because a lot of posts in this forum said that the towns around Summit has the best schools in NJ. Those towns are pretty safe too. That's the reason why we are renting a place in Summit. But right now, I just found that commute is a little bit painful ( maybe just me. I know a lot of people living in Summit are working in the City ).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ira
Just curious, how did you arrive at the list of towns? I personally would not spend that amount of money in any of the places you listed. Even though you don't have kids now, one day you probably will. So, think of the future, the re-sale value. Good schools sell. None of the towns you listed are considered "top-school" districts. There is no way, you'll ever sell your house for that amount in those towns. They are not bad, by any means, but I think you could do much better with $700K.
Also, you mentioned that just moved from Canada and not really familiar with the area. Why not rent for a while?
As to how I get to the list of cities of Rutherford and Secaucus, I want to living in a safe town within 1 hour commute to my office (door to door). I also want to get a house. Thus, I almost can only choose from the cities within 30 minutes commute to NY Penn or NY Port Auth. After reading the posts in this forum, Rutherford and Secaucus are the safest towns within half an hour range commute to the City.
We were living in Hoboken when we first come here. We like Hoboken and it it is close to the City too. But I don't think we will be able to get a house in Hoboken.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ira
Just curious, how did you arrive at the list of towns? I personally would not spend that amount of money in any of the places you listed. Even though you don't have kids now, one day you probably will. So, think of the future, the re-sale value. Good schools sell. None of the towns you listed are considered "top-school" districts. There is no way, you'll ever sell your house for that amount in those towns. They are not bad, by any means, but I think you could do much better with $700K.
Also, you mentioned that just moved from Canada and not really familiar with the area. Why not rent for a while?
Thanks for your information.
I checked the bus and train schedule from Westfield, Cranford and Clard. It takes at least same amount of time if not longer to commute to NY Penn from those cities, compared with Summit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianG
You can also try area's in central jersey
Westfield, Cranford , Clark , Colonia and certain parts of Rahway
They are all within your range as far as price and commute
They all have some new construction as well as some
very beautiful and well kept older homes
Westfield is a beautiful town and Rahway downtown is undergoing a remake of the downtown area, you can google any town to find out what is going on
Thanks for the information. I will check out the listings in Wood-Ridge and Hasbrouck.
What do you think the resale value and schools in those cities?
Quote:
Originally Posted by EEEPNJ
I'd reccommend Wood-Ridge NJ and Hasbrouck Heights NJ.
W-R especially had quite a few new homes built recently that are sitting that are in your price range...you'd be the first occupant. Taxes are decent for Bergen/Northern NJ and there is a train in house - you could be to Manhattan within an hour - no problem. Overall I think both WR and HH are better than Secaucus and Rutehrford in terms of crime, actually, they definately are. WR is the safest of all 4 towns mentioned. Good luck.
rutherford is a nice town, train is right there, but dont know how new the homes are.
i do know that you can find newer beautiful homes in Wayne--but its more suburban, and not much to walk to.
montclair is also beautiful and trendy, LOTS to do and walkable, but again, dont know how many newer homes you will find there.
your commute from these areas would be about an hour
another more suburban driving town is Cedar grove--lots of newer homes there too.
Thanks for the information. I will check out the listings in Wood-Ridge and Hasbrouck.
What do you think the resale value and schools in those cities?
Resale values should stay stable ...the market is declining all over... but they are safe towns and they are very quick commutes to NYC... you know the drill... location, location, location....
W-R schools are not as good as HH. HH is better overall. WR's K-5 school is pretty good, but I don't think 6-12 is anything spectacular.
As for Rutherford - taxes are astronomical and ahve gone up something like 32% in recent years. There have been huge problems due to corruption, although that's most of NJ. Rutherford's schools were deemed "blue ribbon" years ago... I don't know how much stock I'd put in that though. The #'s are down and I know several people in the district and they are not impressed...that's teachers, parents, students and police officers all telling me the same thing. I think Rutherford has a certain charm, for sure, but it's "time" has passed.
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